Case 04

Many hands make light work. Let the audience work together on a solution.

Case 04: For involvement and inspiration

How do you create ownership over an issue? And how do you make one person’s issue relevant to the whole group? By presenting the issue to the audience they can discuss it as a group first to gain a better understanding of the matter. The comments that are sent in, give a broad insight. Discussing the input during a plenary discussion allows you to get the issue solved together!

AHOLD HR managers determine the agenda.

Supermarket chain AHOLD invited its European HR Managers to an annual meeting. During this meeting the success and challenges of the previous year were discussed, as well as what to focus on in the new year. The morning program was planned, but the organization had deliberately left the afternoon session open.

During sub sessions in the morning, the discussion groups were each given three questions to discuss. The leader summarized each answer in a brief text message and sent it to the organization. Based on those messages, the agenda for the afternoon was created. This was done by a separate team, supported by Sendsteps.

“What support do I need from the HR Management Team?”

— one of the questions that was asked.

Effect

By using the input of the morning session during the plenary afternoon session, the theme could be tackled from different angles. “By discussing the themes in smaller groups, I noticed that it was much easier for me to listen and respond with more detail and nuance during the follow-up session”, said one of the managers. The audience said that everything discussed that day was actually used to find solutions.